Dance History Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

How is Indian classical dance viewed abroad? The place and impact of India’s dance traditions throughout the world is obviously a vast subject covering space and time. It has perhaps almost as many perspectives as there are artists and... more

How is Indian classical dance viewed abroad?

The place and impact of India’s dance traditions throughout the world is obviously a vast subject covering space and time. It has perhaps almost as many perspectives as there are artists and audiences. Recently I invited a dance scholar, a mid-career international performing artist and a former Indian ambassador to offer their thoughts and experiences as part of a seminar.

Ambassador Amarendra Khatua is an all-too-rare civil servant who brought significant knowledge and familiarity with arts and artists to his international postings as well director of ICCR. He shared that there are approximately 7,600 classical art schools outside India and 367,000 recognized classical Indian arts performers. Surprisingly, these are not just in the Indian Diaspora countries but all over the globe.

A question he raised is whether these arts, which are recognized and appreciated abroad, have entered the local lexicon of the arts internationally. Khatua also shared his personal view, after 38 years as a Foreign Service bureaucrat, that government should not function as a patron of the arts running institutions but should simply offer financial support. He also raised the question of the motivation and impact for India of taking our performing arts abroad. There are 32 million non-resident Indians persons of Indian origin abroad. We tell them they are ambassadors of India but are they ambassadors of our performing arts? Or are they opportunistic promoters of our performing arts during their conferences and festival events?

Bharatanatyam exponent Rama Vaidyanathan articulated the responsibility of representing Indian Sanskriti and connecting to both the Indian Diaspora and local nationals worldwide. I was happy to hear that she shared my experience that “it is the emotive power of Indian dance that really stirs the soul of the audience that connects to them and is different from their familiar dance forms rather than the general assumption that fast-paced rhythmic nritta”.

Dance scholar Arshiya Sethi shared her research into the creative interactions, based on fact and imagination, of Western artists connecting to the Indian dance genres available to them in the early and mid-20th century. These included Ruth St Denis, Anna Pavlova, La Meri who promoted Ram Gopal, Jazz and film choreographer Jack Cole who trained under La Meri, and many more, creating a considerable tapestry of artistic and cultural influences and interactions as well as the downside of devadasis exhibited in fairs.

She gave an historical panorama of the tapestry of these connections. “The transference of Indian dance overseas is a process that has been going on in phases for 140 years. A Nautch group that went in the 1880s to perform in exhibitions and fairs provided glimpses of spiritual elements draped in saris, though tinged with racist and sexist stereotypes.

Basically these were people who were fascinated by India. There are questions of representation, authenticity even today when we have reclaimed and researched so much that was not available earlier in the 20th century.

The 1960’s STEM visas for the USA brought highly skilled immigrants with wives trained in classical dance who found a few interested American students to teach. In the 1980’s USA visa policy changed which led to many Indians coming, trained dancers among them, and the rise of Indian dance schools everywhere with more Indian origin students as the number of American students reduced.”

Arshiya’s historical overview led to the conclusion that the visibility of Indian dance has improved considerably in the USA with an Indian dancer, Ranee Ramaswamy, in the National Endowment for the Arts which determines national funding and other dancers getting national, state and local funding.

Of course, this is a subject I have enjoyed observing over the decades since I was first exposed to India and Indian classical dance during the 1950’s as a child in multi-culturally vibrant Detroit, Michigan. The transmission of tradition here and abroad, along with its understanding and appreciation, is an evergreen subject I plunge into regularly. This was a few drops from this ocean.